Navy set to discuss OLF in Currituck

Meeting also set for Monday with Camden officials

By JOHN HENDERSON
Staff Writer

Friday, February 20, 2009

Editor's note: This story originally ran in The Daily Advance, Sept. 27.

Navy representatives are scheduled to meet with Currituck County officials and residents today to discuss the military’s possible consideration of two sites in neighboring Camden County for an auxiliary landing field for fighter jets.

The meeting, which is open to the public, is scheduled for 2 p.m. in the commission’s chambers at the courthouse.

Navy officials also plan to discuss their interest in two sites for the outlying landing field, or OLF, with Camden County commissioners on Monday at 8 a.m.

Last week, six potential OLF sites in North Carolina, including two in Camden, were unveiled by Navy officials to a task force created by Gov. Mike Easley. The six sites are in addition to seven already proposed by the state of Virginia and five previously studied by the Navy for the OLF.

One of the Camden sites being considered is in the Hale’s Lake area, a farming community with tens of thousands of acres of open space and family farms. The other site is in the northeastern corner of Camden near the Currituck border.

Currituck Manager Dan Scanlon said Wednesday that county officials are hesitant to comment on the Navy’s proposal until they learn more about it. He said he hopes some of the county’s questions will be answered today.

“We don’t want to be hasty and react to speculation,” Scanlon said.

Currituck Board of Commissioners Chairman Barry Nelms, who served in the Navy, said he wants to hear more from Navy officials before taking a position on the OLF.

“There are a lot of people that are screaming ‘Chicken Little’ out there, and nobody knows what any of the proposals are about,” he said. “I’m very receptive to listening to (Navy officials). I’m very open minded.”

The Navy has said it needs a new OLF because it has outgrown its current outlying landing field at Fentress, Va. The new OLF would create another place where Navy pilots can practice takeoffs and landings under conditions that simulate carrier landings, including those at night.

The Navy preferably would like the facility to be located between Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va. and Marine Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock.

County officials in North Carolina, however, have expressed concern about the proposed OLF. They say the airfield would bring jet noise and the possibility that thousands of farming acres could be put out of operation and taken off the tax rolls.

Two potential OLF sites have been proposed in Gates County, and the Board of Commission there has already approved a resolution opposing a landing field at both sites.

The Camden Board of Commissioners was also scheduled to vote on a resolution opposing an OLF in the county at its meeting on Monday. But now that Camden officials will be meeting with Navy representatives Monday, it’s not clear whether that will happen.

“We may wait until the following meeting (to vote on the resolution) to have time to digest the information,” County Manager Randell Woodruff said Wednesday. “It is going to be up to the board how they want to proceed.”

The Navy has not ruled out five other potential sites in North Carolina, including locations in Perquimans and Washington and Beaufort counties.

“We have not eliminated any of the original five (original) sites,” Navy spokesman Ted Brown said Wednesday.